Progreso Lakes, 8/15/23

My goal today was to replace the float valve in the guest toilet but it didn't happen.  Instead I spent the morning in our Progreso Lakes yard playing with birds.  We don't get  a lot of Tricolored Herons so this tame immature bird feeding on Gambusia close to our shore was a treat.  Normally the water is a couple of feet deeper and this bird would not be feeding here.

This Great Blue Heron would not normally be able to stand in this water either.

A flock of fifty White Ibis were acting like they were migrating south.

Five Black Terns were nice.

I think this is a second fall Laughing Gull followed by two hatch year birds.

I've been hearing Dickcissels lately and one finally landed in the yard.

Jones yard, Progreso Lakes, Hidalgo, Texas, US

Aug 15, 2023 6:40 AM - 10:33 AM

Protocol: Stationary

53 species (+3 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  10

Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)  2

Muscovy Duck x Mallard (hybrid)  5    Adult male and four young

Mottled Duck (Gulf Coast)  18    Flock did a couple of laps.  No doubt stressed by drought.

Plain Chachalaca  4

Eurasian Collared-Dove  2

Inca Dove  1

White-tipped Dove  1

White-winged Dove  200

Mourning Dove  25

Groove-billed Ani  1

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1

Buff-bellied Hummingbird  2

Common Gallinule  2

American Coot  1

Killdeer  1

Spotted Sandpiper  1

shorebird sp.  8

Laughing Gull  3

Black Tern  5

Neotropic Cormorant  13

Great Blue Heron  1

Snowy Egret  2

Tricolored Heron  2

Cattle Egret  1

Green Heron  8

Black-crowned Night-Heron  3

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1

White Ibis  50

Turkey Vulture  1

Eastern Screech-Owl (McCall's)  2

Golden-fronted Woodpecker  2

Ladder-backed Woodpecker  1

Great Kiskadee  2

Tropical Kingbird  2

Couch's Kingbird  5

Black-crested Titmouse  1

Verdin  1

Purple Martin  5

Tree Swallow  1    Scope views of immature perched with Barn Swallows, greenish back, whitish below from throat to vent

Barn Swallow  5

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

European Starling  12

Northern Mockingbird  5

Clay-colored Thrush  3

House Sparrow  8

Lesser Goldfinch  1

Lark Sparrow  1

Hooded Oriole  1

Orchard/Hooded Oriole  2

Altamira Oriole  1

Red-winged Blackbird  6

Bronzed Cowbird (Bronzed)  10

Great-tailed Grackle  10

Northern Cardinal  1

Dickcissel  1